Yay for days off! I think I caught a cold and have been pretty miserable. I managed to get some much needed shopping done and relaxed for a bit. Now I can't believe the day is almost gone and I only managed to get one page done. :(

Sunday, September 25, 2011

I decided today I wanted to be lazy. The weather is kinda yucky, the laundry still needs to get done, the kids are whiny and miserable....so I just decided to take a break and do nothing but scrap today.

I've been trying to decide what to do with all these wonderful sketches from Sassy Lil' Sketches. Today was the day I was determined to work on as many as I could. But I wanted to go back to my whimsical style. Quick, simple and easy.

The first one I used fun chipboard pieces from My Mind's Eye - Fine and Dandy collection. I pulled out the box of patterned scraps and decided to make a dent in that too.

Next were some fun pictures from our horseback riding trip. I can't wait until our Fall ride! I absolutely loved the horses and the ride was so relaxing. The Fall colors would be perfect to see on our ride. :)

All of these pieces are from a kit from The Paper Studio. And my 3rd page is filled with more fun chipboard from Bo Bunny's Blast Off collection. The whole page looked too simple for me at first. So I took it outside and "blasted" it with Glimmer Mist. Now it sparkles all over and really looks cool! :)So now I think my next shopping trip will consist of more chipboard elements. I really took a chunk out of the stash today, but I am happy with my pages.

What a great weekend! The weather held out for us yesterday, so we were able to make our annual trip to the Fall Festival at our local farm. What a great start to the Fall season!

It's Day 3 of Leeanne's Birthday Bash celebration at Artful Delight. The 3rd challenge was to use Kraft, Pink and White. These are such pretty colors together, but since I still had the September kit on my desk, it meant I had to clean up before I could start another project.

I used kraft paper for the photo mat. With the leftovers from that sheet, I used a border punch to make a few layered strips down the sides. Then I dusted off my Coluzzle set and cut some flowers. With some pink ink on the edges, pretty flowers, and white brads, I was pretty happy with my own embellishments. :)

I had a template for swirls and used more of the kraft paper. I colored them in with a darker brown marker and cut them out by hand. To pretty them up a bit, I threw in a little bit of pearly bling.

The small corrugated frames are from a prize pack I recently won from Let's Capture These Sketches. I used tiny leftover pieces from pictures I had to trim down.

And the title came from Thickers...which was from the September kit from Artful Delight...so I guess I didn't clean it ALL up...lol

Happy Sunday! It's time for Challenge #57 from Lasting Memories! This week we were prompted to use Frames and Flowers on our projects. I just took these pictures at Cantigny Park last week and was so excited to see them in my mailbox the other day. :)

Don't forget to stop by and see what the rest of the Design Team created!

The gingham frames are from Wild Asparagus. I had to cut them down a bit to fit the pictures. I found these gorgeous butterflies during my last trip to Hobby Lobby. Everything else came from the September kit from Artful Delight. I have used this kit to death and there are still bits and pieces all over my desk. :)

I am so thrilled that the sun is out and the sky is clear! They were predicting rain all weekend and I was so disappointed that we wouldn't be able to go to the first Fall Fest of the season. But it doesn't look like anything is going to stop us now!

It's still Leeanne's Happy Birthday weekend and the 2nd challenge from Artful Delight has been posted. It's a Tic Tac Toe challenge. I chose to work right down the middle. I used up lots of scraps from a previous layout, quite a few buttons and of course, a Fall theme.

Almost everything here is from the September kit from Artful Delight. I think the buttons and maybe a scrap piece of cardstock or two came from my own stash. I love this kit!!

I used sketch #238 from Sketch Inspiration to work with. That beautiful photo of my daughter really helped inspire me also. She is such a cutie and loves to pose. :)

Friday, September 23, 2011

It's time for the Birthday Bash at Artful Delight! Happy Birthday Leeanne!!!

I hated being stuck at work and not able to comment or play. But once that clock struck 5:00 (actually 4:30, the boss was gone so we snuck out...sshhh), I raced home to start my weekend of scrapping!!

The first challenge of the birthday bash was to use this sketch. I was determined to use the September kit and I was ECSTATIC when I got home and saw the box from Snapfish on my desk!!! We had recently gone to the Revolutionary War reenactment at Cantigny Park and I knew many of these pictures would work well with the Crate Paper collection that came in the kit. The only thing I used that wasn't in the kit were the photo mats. :)

I made my bow with the ribbon included. :)

I also tried to write my own title on the journal spot....I hate my writing....lol.

Can't wait to see what the next challenge will be! My kit is alllll over my desk, so BRING IT ON!! lol

Sunday, September 18, 2011

I needed a little pick me up today, so I decided to work on some fun Summer photos. These pictures of my daughter making funny watermelon faces cracked me up. And I love this patterned paper from Imaginisce Berrylicious. It was one of those collections that I just HAD to run out and get...and then it sat in the paper holder for months.

The fun watermelon ribbon was something my sister in law found and thought it was too cute not to pass on.

With this beautiful sketch from Stuck on U Sketches, I just had to pull out an older picture of my daughter from her First Holy Communion.

Lots of bits and pieces were found in the stash. The doilies, flowers buttons and even pieces of ribbon all came in handy and cleaned up my desk a bit.

I had some old lace from my Mom's sewing kit and I trimmed it down a bit to use as an accent piece. And since I just stocked up on pearl bling, I was more than happy to use up lots of it around the doilies. :)

The journaling came from the inside of one of the cards she received that day.

I'm off to see if the butterflies at the fest want to come out and play today...wish me luck!!

I have been working on this off and on for a while and I have to admit...I am THRILLED with the way it turned out!

The sketch is the September Stack-a-holic challenge from Die Cuts with a View. I have tons of their new Halloween goodies, so I was so ready to dive into this one. All of the papers are from the Recollections - Midnight Magic collection. I am in love with this paper stack! Sooo many possibilities! I ran out yesterday for some adhesive and ended up buying yet more of the embellishments to go along with this stack.

Meticulously cutting each and every square precisely and then making sure they all lined up evenly kept my busy for quite a while. After I had the pieces adhered, I was stumped on what to do with the rest of the page...lol. So off it went onto the shelf for about a week or so.

Finally, I rolled up the sleeves and dove right back in.

I used another sheet from the stack for the photo mat. Decorative scissors (yes, I still use them!) gave the edges a little bit of dimension....along with some black ink.

This awesome ribbon was calling my name so I made 2 different sized bows and used a layered sticker for the center. I also found the beautiful royal purple ribbon in the stash.

The title is all Thickers alphas.

I can't believe how letting this rest for a while really helped. Once I looked at it again, everything fell into place. I am so happy and I think this is going on the mantle for Halloween. :)

Gotta love a sketch challenge with a fun theme! This week's challenge from Lasting Memories was to use this sketch with Fall colors. Fall is my most favorite time of the year, so I know I have plenty to work with!

My kids love going to the pumpkin patch and "try" to pick up the biggest one to bring home....never happens. I always let them get one big one and a bunch of smaller ones to play with. But to find the best, we visit quite a few pumpkin farms.

These felt pumpkins have been my favorite embellishment for a long time. I found them at Michael's and bought tons of them. I know they will be used for many pages...along with the miles of raffia and jute I bought. Perfect for Fall Pages!

Be sure sure to check out what the rest of the Design Team at Lasting Memories created this week! You won't be disappointed! Fabulous inspiration!

And don't forget to see who made our Top 3 this week! Congrats ladies!!

You have until September 24th at 9:00 pm to link up! Have fun and Happy Fall!

I would like to start off this post by asking everyone to please make the rain go away! Today is the Butterfly Festival and I have been looking forward to it all year and this rain is really getting on my nerves! Any help would be greatly appreciated...Thank you!

So, here is my take on this week's Partnership Challenge between Sketchy Thursdays andScrapFit. I love playing along with both sites, so this was a lot of fun being able to combine challenges. :)

I have had this film strip overlay for quite some time. When I saw this sketch, my first thought was sunshine, sunrise, something like that. But then I imagined those big searchlights that they always have outside movie premieres or theaters. I used to live near downtown Chicago, so on a clear night, we could walk up the hill to see these searchlights if there was a big event downtown.

Anyway, a year or two ago, we had pizza and a movie night at a friend's house. I can't remember what the actual movie was, the kids were there so I'm going to assume it was a Disney movie...lol.

We had popcorn and pizza and the adults had margaritas while the kids had kiddie cocktails. I wish I had more pictures of that night, but sometimes people just don't get it when I take pictures sometimes...lol. Taking pictures of everyone sitting around watching a movie is just crazy! Who does that??!! Umm....a true scrapbooker, that's who! So even though I have no pictures of my friends, I know we had a great night hanging out with them. I want to host this time! Then I know I will get pictures! lol

I broke out some of my older stickers for this page. The Paper Variety challenged us to use lots of stickers this week. I still have a stash from when Mrs. Grossman's was really popular. The movie reels and "clackers" (whatever they are called...lol) finally found a way to be useful.

The best part was going through the huge stash of letter stickers again. I find some awesome fonts in there from time to time! I need to get over my addiction to Thickers and use these more often!

Anyway....keep saying those prayers and happy thoughts that the rain will stop! Thanks!

The hardest part was deciding which papers to use. I have a really hard time working with double sided papers. I always feel like I'm not giving one side justice...lol. Choosing one over the other....sigh...

I worked with the Jillibean Apple Cheddar Soup papers. This wood paper is so cool! I used my new Tim Holtz distressing tool on the edges.

All the bits and pieces in the kit were fun to play with too. These handmade flowers are just gorgeous! Debbie also make these beauties. :) They are so pretty!

The ribbon, the raffia, the buttons....this was a really fun kit to play with. I wish my picture order came in today. I know I have lots more to use with this kit.

YAY! What a beautiful day! It's so nice outside and I can't wait to get out! Junior Farmers today, then a Fall Festival later on. AND...I get to get some scrapping done!

This is my take on sketch #56 from Sketches in Thyme. I was able to use up some older Bo Bunny stickers, a few Thickers, some pop dots and my newest Glimmer Mist spray...Tattered Leather. I love this color because I am sure I am going to have many "dirty" pages and pictures of this little guy.

My Sketch World is still having a blast with their ABC Crop this month! This page is for the letter "M"...something about a man in your life. This is my favoritest Little Man....lol.

Tonight is a One Hour Sketch Challenge for the letter "O". I sure hope I get to play along!

Wednesday, September 14, 2011

I have been thinking about what I wanted to do for the "That's So Yesterday" challenge from the Paper Trail Makers. I have been sitting on this amazing photo that belongs to my co-worker for a really long time. I never felt I could come up with a layout that would be worthy of using this photo. (I still don't...lol)

So today I was messing around on the internet and came across a blog post by Colorbok featuring one of their newest paper pads called Rosewood. I loved what I saw in the photo and since I had the time, I ran to Walmart to see it in person. I was so not disappointed! This pad is so beautiful! I got it home and when I placed this photo in the middle of each sheet, I was amazed at how many possibilities there were. Everything was so vintage, and worked so well with this photo, I didn't know where to start! So....

The flower cluster was cut from one sheet and I added pop dots for some dimension. I was considering using some Primas, but this worked perfectly. I love my Exacto knife! The photo mat was made from the rest of the flower page, and I used a border punch and scored it for more dimension.

The strip was cut from another sheet of this beautiful paper. I seriously cannot tell you how gorgeous this set is!

The title is from Marcella by Kay dome stickers. I have had these FOREVER! Just a few letters left....

And another added touch was the vellum envelope with a tiny piece of text paper popping out of it. I have no idea what it says...lol. But I love the way it looks. :)

So glad I made the trip to get this! I may need another....just because... :)

I am so not good at leaving "white space". I tried to follow this sketch from Creative Scrappers and thought I was doing pretty good. But when I went to take the photo, it looked too empty. I must overcome this...lol

Now that the weather has turned yucky, there is no reason why I should have to leave the house. Darn....more scrapping for me....

Here is this week's Sketchy Thursdays sketch....multi photo, multi strips....awesome! I raided the box of scraps for all of these fun strips. Sometimes saving this stuff really comes in handy. I added a strip of corrugated just for fun. The letter stickers are from For the Record by Echo Park. And I love these sunflower stickers from Michael's Recollections. :)

I'm also playing along with Weekend Warmup #13 from Scrapfit which was to use strips. How convenient that this awesome sketch came along!? Now do you know why I'm in such a great mood? Happy Day Off to me!!

Sooo glad I have today off! I can play all day and catch up on some pages! YAY!!

Here is my first page. Scrapfit challenge #51 was all about Salt and Pepper....aka...Black and White. This photo isn't exactly black and white, but the evergreen trees are so dark against all the bright white snow, it could be black. The frame is a photo frame from Michael's. I loved the design of the whole piece. I trimmed the edges off to give it a more rounded look. The flowers are also from Michael's as well as the bling. I'm thinking I spend an awful lot of time shopping at Michael's....hmmm.....